Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-09-29
SALVATION BY TORTURE.
4 BIood.Curdling Religious Orgy INDUCED in
BY Fanatical Arabs

BY Fanatical Arabs
traveller who recently visited the sa-
cred city of Kaitwan, in Tunis. describes
the extraordinary orgy or ceremony
known as salvation by torture, in the
Fortnightly Review. He says: Sudden
ly line of four or five Arabs formed in
front of the entrance. They joined hands
and presently began alurshiug movement
which was gradually communicated 10
every member of their bodies, and from
the crown of their heads 20 the soles OF
their feet they ware presently keeping
time to the music in convulsive Jerks
and leaps and undulations This row of
bobbing figures seemed to exercise an
irresistible fascination over the specta.
tors.
Every moNent one or other of these
left his place to join the ranks. Thus the
time ever heightened, and before the self
torturing commenced there were forty
human figures stretched right across the
building and all rocking backward and
forward in grim and ungraceful unisor
Even the spectators, who kept their pla.
ces, could not resist the contagation; as
they sat there they unconsciously kept
time with their heads aqd shoulders, and
one little child swung his head this way
and that with fury that threatened to
separate it from his body.
Meanwhile the music had been growing
in intensity, the orchestra sharing the ex
citmeHt which they communicated. The
drummers beat th@ir tambours with re.
doubled force, lifting them high above
their heads and occasionally at some ex-
treme pitch, tossing them aloft and
catching them again as they fell. Some
times in the exaltation OF frenzy they
started spssmodioally to their feet and
then sank back into their original
position.
And now the osoillating line in front Of
the doorway for the first time found ut
terance. AS they leaped high on one foot
alternately kicking out the other as their
heads wagged to and fro and their bodies
quivered with the muscular strain, they
cried aloud in the praise of Allah. ia
ilaha i'll Allah" (there ia no God but
Allah this was the untiring burden of
their strain. And then came "Ea AllahN
co. God) and sometimes, "Ya kahharW
co. avenging Cod "Ya Haiku 90, just
God, while each burst of olamerous ap
peal in an awful shout of "Ya HoOW 60,
HIM.
The rapidly and vehemenco of their
OSCILLATIONS were now appalling; their
heads swung backward aud forward till
their foreheads almost touched their
breasts, and their scalps smote against
their backs. Sweat poured from their
faces; they painted for breath, and the ex-
| carnations burst from their mouths in "A
| thick and stertuos murmur, Suddenly
without warning, the first phase of the
| zakir ceased and the actors stood gasp
ing, shaking and dripping with perspel
! alton.
After few minutes respite the per
| Torrance recommended, and shortly wax
| ed more furious than ever. The wor-
| shippers seemed TO be gifted with an al
most superhuman strength and energy,
| As they flung themselves TO and fro, at
one moment their faces CLEANED with a
SICILY polish under the liekering lamps,
as the next their turbaned heads all but
brushed the floor. Their eyes started
from the sockets; the muscles on their
necks and the veins on their foreheads
stood ont like knotted cords. One ole
man fell out OF the ranks breathless
spent and foamng. His place was taken
by another, and the tumpltous orgy went
on.
And now as the erstacy approached its
! height and the fully initiated became
mslboOs or possessed, they broke from
the stereotyped ltany into Economical
grlnning and ferocious and bestial cries
these writhiug and contorted objects
we're no longer rational human beings but
savage animals, Gagged brutes, bowling
madly in the deliriun of hunger or OF
pain. They growled like bears, they bar
ked like jackals, they roared like lions
they laughed like hyenas, and ever anC
anon from the seething rank rose a dia
bolical shrek, like the scream of a dying
horse or the yell of tortured fiend
And stedily the while in the background
resounded the implacable reverberance OF
the drums.
The climax was now reached; the requi
site pitch of cataleptio inebratiou hac
been obtained, and the rites of Aissa were
about to begin From the crowd at the
door a wild figure broke forth, tore %
his upper clothing till be was naked tc
the waist, and throwing away his fel
barred a head close shaver save for one
long dislcveled lock that, srringing from
the scalp, fell over his forehead like som'
srisly and funeral plume. A long knife
somewhat resembling a cutlas, was hand
ed TO him by the shiekh, who had risen
TO his feet, and who had directed the
phenomena that ensued.
Waving it wildly, above his head and
protruding the forepart of his figure, th'
fanatic brought down blow after blow
against his bare stomach and drew il saw
agely TO aud fro against the unprotected
skin. There showed the marks OF long
and liyid veal, but no blood spurted from
! the cash. In the intervals between the
strokes he ran swiftly from one side tC
the other Of the open space taking Ion
healthy strides like . panther about e
spring, and seemingly 80 poweriess Owe
his own movements that he knocked
blindly up against those who stood in hi
way, nearly upsetting them with the vio
lence Of the collision.
The proves or the piety of this arden
degotee proved extraordinarily cOntag
ious. First one and then another OF hi
bretheren caught the aillatus end followeI
his example. In a few moments ever.
I a.. SC